I am looking to buy one to mesh my vcd's together as i am sick of changing the disc's.I understand they write onto +R rather than -r but i have been told they do not play on a lot of DVD players?.
Is this true?.

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what is it you want, a drive for your pc, or a standalong thing, for under the telly?

if it's a standalone, it'll probably use rams. don't buy one.

Get a drive for your pc. some use - some use +.

Compatibility varies according to the media, and your standalone player.

I'd get a -, probably the pioneer (or the cendyne, cos they're the same drive), because it's cheapest here, and the media is cheapest too.

a standalone will be about £400 or so, a pc drive will be about £150.

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I have a Panasonic DMR-E30 (NTSC model, but you can buy EU models too) and I love it. If you're looking to replace your old analog VCR, standalones are it baby! Price may be a bit of an issue, but not much, I payed $359US

You can record on either DVD-R or DVD-RAM, and the quality is great! You can choose from different recording modes including a Flexible record mode, where instead of choosing a specific mode (sp-2hour mode or EP-4hour mode) you tell it the length of the recording (i.e. 2:35) and it fills up your -R or RAM with the whole movie, leaving no unused disk space and thus keeping a high bitrate.

It has a built in TBC (time base corrector) and 3D comb filter to clean up VHS recordings, and 4 sets of inputs so you can hook up all your gear to it.

Plus it's a progressive scan player that doesn't have the Chroma bug that most DVD players have.

You can even hook up your TV out card and sound card to it and record from your computer directly, or pop those VCDs in DVD player #2 and hit pause on the recorder while you change disks.

You can even buy models that feature built in HDD for dubbing and editing (although you can edit with my E30 on the DVD-RAM disks-pop the RAM in player #2 and dub back to -R)

And the disks are compatible with players that can handle DVD-R. I have dubbed tons of VHS and Camcorder footage for Friends and family and none of them have told me that the disk won't play.

DVDwriters and DVDrecorders both have their plusses and minuses, but for my needs, getting rid of the VCR, copying stuff from the TV and my Computer, the standalone wins hands down.

No synch issues, no seperate capturing, and no extensive waits while the converting software does it's job. Just hit record and play.

My score on the DMR-E30 8.5/10

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scotty : im not sure whether he means a standalone or a pc drive, its hard to work out :/

if you mean PC either get a DVD-R or a drive that can do both + and -. dont see the point in going for + only for a PC drive really, but whatever

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Sorry i was a little unclear.
I basically want to record vcd's/Svcd's using a standalone.As +R are quite expensive i was going to use RW and copy with my 105 onto -r.
So get the VCD/SVCD
record all film onto DVD-RAM RW
copy onto -R
scrub RW and start again.
Seems a little silly but i was going to get a standalone anyway for putting my kids footage of them growing up onto DVD.I like the sound of the recorder that uses all disc space depending on the time of the film,does anyone have the name or model number of that?.

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butch, what kinda camera do you have?

i'd think about getting a newish one with firewire, and transferring that across to the pc and burning with the pioneer mate, i really wouldn't even consider a standalone.

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It's the birds camera,JVC digital thats all i know.I wanted a DVD-recorder for getting things off the tele as well and putting complete series' on DVD.I have been told today that DVD-RAM cannot be copied onto DVD-R?????
.Was looking to use the RAM as a temporary and putting onto DVD-R for permanant viewing.I also have loads of VHS i would like to put onto it and hooking my VHS to my PC would just be crap.

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buy a tivo and hook it up to your pc!

you know you want to

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lol.
Right this is what i want to do and talking to someone else i have heard this is now possible.
hook DVD player up to DVD recorder
Record VCD film (2 disc or 3 disc) onto the DVD-RAM
Copy the DVD-RAM onto a blank DVD-r.
Now that to me sound's 100% feesable.

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it's perfectly feasible mate, but you'll lose a bit of quality that way, and it's the more expensive option.

there are easier and better ways of doing this, i can assure you.

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